


Beyond Duty: Being Fancy Lee

by Hagar



Category: Killjoys (TV)
Genre: Character Analysis, Episode: s01e06 One Blood, Gen, Meta, Morality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 17:46:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5507039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hagar/pseuds/Hagar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"This is my gift to the Killjoy collective," he says, full of self-congratulating arrogance - but then, that's Fancy Lee: a stage magician who perfected the art of using sarcasm and trolling to distract from his sleight-of-hand. No, Fancy Lee is not nice; but ignore that, and suddenly it's apparent that what he is, is consistently <i>kind.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Beyond Duty: Being Fancy Lee

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pameluke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pameluke/gifts).
  * Inspired by [gifset](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/164153) by ramplings. 



> Adapted from [this](http://hagar-972.tumblr.com/post/128983596174/janoda-ramplings-every-organization-needs-a) tumblr post.

Fancy Lee got it right: Designated Assholes are definitely a Thing, and any sufficiently-large group of people will have at least one.

Designated Assholes pose an interesting paradox: if they're assholes, why do they invest in belonging? And if they care for camaraderie, why do they alienate their peers? The latter is fairly easy to answer: there's any number of social or other cognitive disabilities that'll interfere with a person's ability to socially integrate, regardless of whether or not they want to. Either depression or anxiety may cause a person to be irritable and antagonistic; autistic spectrum disorders famously affect the ability to identify and interact with social signaling; and past trauma may alter one's behavior in any number of ways, most of which difficult to get along with. Or else the person may just be deeply introverted, or otherwise not particularly social yet not "ill".

The other possibility returns us to the first question: why would a "true asshole" invest in maintaining social belonging? The obvious answer is "survival": to maintain one's access to necessities such as a source of income, or shelter. The challenge facing such a person would be to scrounge up enough care - first to identify which group-interests are so valuable as to let the person "get away" with being an asshole, and second to keep performing that behavior. Not caring is a serious handicap: human perception and motivation are guided predominantly by intuition and affect, with rational decision-making playing only a secondary role.

My personal experience is that both scenarios - a socially-disadvantaged person or an antisocial one - can and do occur. A more interesting question is, which one is Fancy?

Fancy's body language as he walks away from the Black Warrant party to sit on his own is telling: this is not a man who's _happy_ to be disliked. His other actions in s01e06 _One Blood_ are similarly telling. There was nothing stopping him from tailing John, D'avin and Lucy then tracking Dutch on his own: he wouldn't have been able to use the bloodhound device, sure, but he could've bet his tracking skills against theirs - and that's assuming he didn't have some other gizmo up his sleeve. And speaking of gizmos and gadgets: his use of the directional dart revealed not only that he has that ability (which he really didn't _have_ to use against the guards - and secretive, at least borderline paranoid people like Fancy seems to be don't betray an advantage unless they have to), but also that he could have used it against Dutch in s01e01 _Bangarang_ \- which if he had, Dutch would've died for sure. He pushes and prods at D'avin constantly - and yet, despite D'avin's short temper (aggravated by the recent events of s01e05 _Glitch in the System_ and Dutch's sudden disappearance) and general eagerness for a fight, Fancy only pushes him too hard once; and even then, Fancy doesn't just backtracks but puts active effort into defusing the situation. Similarly, there is no pragmatic, instrumental reason for him to check in on Johnny's welfare or provide him with advice - let alone what amounts to relationship advice. Fancy Lee isn't _nice_ \- but if one manages to filter that from one's perception, it becomes apparent he spends most of his screen-time being _kind_.

This suggests the first scenario: that Fancy is by nature acerbic and competitive in ways that make it difficult to get along even in a group as forgiving of those qualities as the Killjoys; the Designated Asshole role is perfect for his obvious Drama King streak, too. However, a few things don't line up. His handling of Johnny and D'avin suggests a considerable ability to read people and modulate his responses accordingly; of course, it's possible that ability is just too "expensive" (tiring, demanding) for him to use often. Other than that, here was no need for him to verbally alienate the other Killjoys, having killed Big Joe - and there's the matter of the sorrow he radiates, over which his pride is but a thin, brittle shell. Perhaps - most likely - Fancy Lee is not particularly social even on the scale of ill-adapted Killjoys; but he pushes himself further than that, and he does so not just on purpose but in complete awareness. He goes the extra mile on making himself disliked just like he goes the extra mile on being kind - but why?

It seems to me that Fancy answers this in the very text: "The Asshole may not be liked, but he's always necessary. This is my gift to the Killjoy collective." He says it arrogantly, making it sound like a self-congratulating excuse - but then, that's Fancy Lee we're talking about: a stage magician who's perfected the art of using sarcasm and trolling to distract from his sleight-of-hand. The keyword here isn't "gift", but "necessary". Persons capable of identifying and responding to capital-letter Necessity have something black-and-white in their thinking. It's what makes Fancy able to believe "The warrant is all" completely enough and long enough to shoot and kill a friend with no hesitation at all, then meet the eyes of that friend's protege just as steadily.

When Fancy calls what he does a "gift", he means that: time and again Fancy makes the choice to do something that'll hurt him because it's Necessary, and because he knows he can shoulder that pain better. He fully grasps this is a choice, and one that he makes: he never once tries to leverage it to guilt or otherwise manipulate another person. In fact, a goes a step further: by antagonizing the others immediately on the heels of having done a Necessary thing he distracts them from the pain he can't hide, and gives them a reason to not care about it even if they do notice.

The Black Warrant having been upgraded, a quick and clean kill which he never saw coming was the kindest thing possible to do for Big Joe - and for Dutch as well. Fancy recognized that, and did what was Necessary. It wasn't necessary to distract any empathetic souls from caring about him but Fancy did that too, sparing them the dilemma of decency versus necessity on that level as well. What Fancy does goes beyond duty, and it certainly goes beyond the law; call it what you will but me, I'd call that _love_.


End file.
